riversedge
riversedge's JournalEPA shutting down climate adaptation program
Source: The Hill
?itok=lMqchFKz
© Getty Images
.......................It’s part of the EPA’s shift away from climate change programs, which President Trump previewed last month in his first budget request.
Trump proposed eliminating major climate programs as part of a 31 percent cut to the EPA’s budget, though those changes would not be effective until later this year, if Congress approved them.
Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, told reporters last month that Trump does not believe climate is a worthwhile cause for federal spending.
“I think the president was fairly straightforward — we’re not spending money on that anymore; we consider that to be a waste of your money to go out and do that,” he said...................
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/327854-epa-shutting-climate-adaptation-program
GOP allies Scott Walker, Robin Vos have heated Twitter, text exchange on Wisconsin budget
BillGlauber? @BillGlauber
GOP allies Scott Walker, Robin Vos have heated Twitter, text exchange on Wisconsin budget https://jsonl.in/2oaPHMV via @journalsentinel
https://twitter.com/BillGlauber/status/850441540598104065
GOP allies Scott Walker, Robin Vos have heated Twitter, text exchange on Wisconsin budget
Jason Stein and Patrick Marley , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Published 2:36 p.m. CT April 7, 2017 | Updated 38 minutes ago
Can Republican Gov. Scott Walker agree with his fellow Republicans who control the Legislature about plans to fund transportation and public schools?
roads
(Photo: Associated Press)
MADISON - After years of going to work on their adversaries, Gov. Scott Walker and fellow Republican Robin Vos have gone to work on each other — both in public and in private.
The tension took on a bitter tone in text messages between the two last week that were released Friday under the state's open records law. The raw private exchange between the governor and Assembly speaker — in which both men blamed the other for infighting over the state budget — underscores how the top Republicans have been at odds in recent actions.
"As I recall, the debate started with the unprecedented discussion of starting with a new budget & the continued attacks on transportation. It would be odd if I didn't defend my positions," Walker wrote at one point in the text exchange.
"I think it actually started with the decision of your office to not really involve us before the process began unlike each of your other budgets ... So without giving us ownership of anything in your budget it's kind of hard for us (to) just rubber stamp it," Vos responded.
"Unlike the last budget where we met with nearly every member in advance & got trashed," Walker snapped back.
For years, Wisconsin Republicans have avoided the kind of party infighting that brought down the federal bill to repeal Obamacare and threatens to capsize efforts in Congress to overhaul the nation's tax code and infrastructure. Since 2011, Walker and GOP lawmakers have approved the concealed carry of handguns, put new rules on abortion and rolled over once powerful unions — the biggest shift in state politics in a century.
But the differences on issues such as road funding are beginning to tell here.
Hillary Clinton: We Can't Protect Syrian Babies While Banning Refugees
Source: time
Hillary Clinton: We Can't Protect Syrian Babies While Banning Refugees
Alana Abramson
2:53 PM ET
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton weighed in on the United States' airstrikes in Syria Friday, saying it was hypocritical to lament the loss of innocent Syrian children in chemical attacks while simultaneously forbidding those those children from entering the United States.
Clinton criticized President Donald Trump's attempts to ban Syrian refugees from the U.S. She also emphasized the attacks need to be accompanied by a plan to end Syria's civil war, which the country has been embroiled in since 2011, when she was Secretary of State.
"I hope this administration will move forward in a way that is both strategic and consistent with our values," she said at a luncheon in Texas. "And I also hope that they will recognize that we cannot in one breath speak of protecting Syrian babies and in the next close America's doors to them."
Clinton was referring to President Trump's executive order banning Syrian refugees from entering the United States for three months...............................
🖖 and 60 others follow
Consuella M. Richard? @MConsuella 12m12 minutes ago
Hillary Clinton: We can't protect Syrian babies while banning refugees http://ti.me/2oK8sIx
- I'm with her
https://twitter.com/MConsuella/status/850428578785353732
Read more: http://time.com/4731485/hillary-clinton-syria-airstrikes-refugees-travel-ban-donald-trump/
And here is a video of Hillary's Houston TX speech from today
Hillary jabs Trump: "We cannot in one breath speak of protecting Syrian babies & in the next close
Spot on Hillary
Monica Alba?Verified account @albamonica 2m2 minutes ago
Hillary Clinton jabs Trump in Texas: "We cannot in one breath speak of protecting Syrian babies & in the next close America’s doors to them" pic.twitter.com/GID3tHg7O1
https://twitter.com/albamonica/status/850428662864326656
1st Officer Spock
🖖 and 60 others follow
Consuella M. Richard? @MConsuella 12m12 minutes ago
Hillary Clinton: We can't protect Syrian babies while banning refugees http://ti.me/2oK8sIx
- I'm with her
https://twitter.com/MConsuella/status/850428578785353732
https://twitter.com/redhed67/status/850420695247007745
Stand Up, Paul Ryan, or Step Aside
First Ryan runs to Trump and then Nunes runs to Trump. Both of them need to be outed from their leadership roles!
The Opinion Pages | Op-Ed Contributor
Stand Up, Paul Ryan, or Step Aside
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/opinion/stand-up-paul-ryan-or-step-aside.html
By MICKEY EDWARDS APRIL 7, 2017
Photo
Paul Ryan in Washington, D.C. on March 24, 2017. Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times
WASHINGTON —....................... But it may be time for him to quit his post as speaker. It is a position for which, thus far, he has proved remarkably unsuited and in which he has allowed the House to suffer a series of humiliations.
As its central feature, the Constitution mandates a deliberate separation between the legislative and administrative, or executive, branches of government. This is not a matter of architecture, a quirk of structural whim. The separation is intended to ensure that no single person or branch of government will amass an excess of power and that the citizenry will retain a firm grip on the government’s policy-making process. If the Congress cedes its independence, the entire constitutional framework, which depends on a system of checks and balances, is compromised.
Maintaining that carefully constructed system is a particular duty of the speaker. Mr. Ryan, though pledged to uphold the Constitution, has taken to acting as though he and the Republicans he leads are members of the White House staff.
Under Mr. Ryan’s leadership, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in the midst of conducting hearings looking into possible wrongdoing by the president or his advisers, briefed the president on the progress and findings of the investigation. The chairman, Devin Nunes, facing ethics complaints over his conduct, has temporarily stepped down, with Mr. Ryan’s approval. But the speaker was under an obligation to have immediately removed Mr. Nunes from his chairmanship in order to assert the House’s independence from the White House. Instead, for days — because he, too, apparently sees himself as one of Donald Trump’s assistants — Mr. Ryan continued to back Mr. Nunes.
That was a failure of omission, but there have also been failures of commission that have undermined the independence of the House. When President Trump demanded the health care bill be brought to the floor for a vote on a particular day last week, Mr. Ryan complied rather than telling Mr. Trump that the speaker, not the president, decides the House schedule.
This was an opportunity for Mr. Ryan to assert the status of Congress as a separate branch, yet he reaffirmed his submissiveness. When it became clear there were not sufficient votes to pass the bill, Mr. Ryan went to the White House to argue for pulling it. But that was his call to make, not the president’s. The proper action for the speaker was to cancel the vote and inform the president accordingly............................
OpED NYTimes: Steve Bannon Isnt a Genius
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/opinion/steve-bannon-isnt-a-genius.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur&_r=0
Steve Bannon Isn’t a Genius
By EZEKIEL KWEKU APRIL 6, 2017
...............Mr. Bannon’s most recent defeat is his removal from the National Security Council. As with the travel ban, he and his allies attempted to cast this as part of the plan. In his telling, he had taken a place on the council only to undo the work of Susan Rice, President Obama’s national security adviser; his allies said he was there to monitor Michael Flynn, the first national security adviser under President Trump. With those tasks accomplished, his work on the council was done. These explanations were quickly countered by leaks that portrayed Mr. Bannon as the loser of an internal power struggle, a depiction implicitly confirmed by leaks from his own camp.
The media has cultivated the reputation of Steve Bannon as chessmaster and puppeteer, both Rasputin and Svengali, a consigliere with a well-worn library card. “Saturday Night Live” even imagined him as the Grim Reaper. Mr. Bannon has cheerfully played along with this portrayal, likening himself to avatars of dark power like Darth Vader and Dick Cheney. But there was never much reason to believe Mr. Bannon has the political genius necessary to actually bring his ideas to life. It’s true that much of the ideological underpinning of Mr. Trump’s agenda comes from Mr. Bannon, and it’s also true that he has outsize influence with the president. But as accomplishments go, fomenting xenophobia and manipulating a famously mercurial political neophyte are thin evidence of genius.
The rejection of the travel ban by the courts and the political left could turn into political capital for both Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon if a terrorist attack happens on American soil. And while in a normal administration, being removed from a formal post would signal a loss of favor and influence, in Mr. Trump’s world, power and position are uncoupled. Mr. Bannon’s setbacks could all be temporary, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t setbacks.
In each of these cases, Mr. Bannon’s preferred outcome was thwarted by rather ordinary political forces, the same ones he promised to circumvent and transcend. In a way, to believe in Mr. Bannon’s genius is to adopt the president’s belief in a sort of vulgar technocracy — the belief that the “best people” can solve any problem put in front of them, whether they have expertise in that field or not. A newspaper publisher can broker peace in the Middle East and revolutionize the government. A neurosurgeon can run the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A life as a real estate mogul and celebrity businessman is adequate preparation for the presidency. But the ability to grab power does not grant the wisdom to wield it, and ungrounded grandiosity is just pretension..............................
Public schools in E. Central WI continue to suffer while unaccountable voucher schools get tax$$
Democratic Party WI Retweeted
WI JFC Democrats? @JFCDemocrats 28m28 minutes ago
Public schools in East Central Wisconsin continue to suffer while unaccountable voucher schools get first crack at taxpayer dollar.#WIBudget
GLOBAL RESPONSE Who supports the US and who doesn't
The Guardian printed last night that the China delegation abruptly left Trumps golf course 6 minutes after the bombing started. I had wondered at the time if they were staying at the club or not.
April 7, 2017 9:53am EDT
GLOBAL RESPONSE
Who supports the US — and who doesn't
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/06/middleeast/us-attacks-syria-live-updates/index.html?lf-content=190166658:lb-post-a42406bd33273d4f8d04d16d5e2b5401@livefyre.com&hubRefSrc=permalink
The countries supporting the US strike in Syria:
Turkey
Saudi Arabia
Israel
UK
Japan
Australia
Opposing it:
Russia
Iran
China
Read
Pelosi wants House hauled back to debate Syria resolution
Source: Politico
04/07/17 09:23 AM EDT
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is calling on Republican leaders to haul lawmakers back to the Capitol to debate President Donald Trump’s decision to launch missile strikes against Syria.
The House wrapped up legislative work Thursday with many lawmakers leaving town for a planned two-week recess. Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the air strikes, deployed in response to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s deadly chemical attack against his own people, changes the dynamic completely.
“The President’s action and any response demands that we immediately do our duty,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) Friday morning. “Congress must live up to its Constitutional responsibility to debate an Authorization of the Use of Military Force against a sovereign nation.”
A spokeswoman for Ryan did not immediately return a request for comment. .............................
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/syria-strike-nancy-pelosi-congress-resolution-236994
I am glad to see this. Very glad and hope Ryan calls the House back into session.
I also this the headlines use of "hauled back" is demeaning to Pelosi.
TWEET
RogelioGarcia Lawyer? @LawyerRogelio 2m2 minutes ago
Pelosi letter to Ryan demanding the House come back in session immediately to debate an Authorization of the Use of Military Force in Syria
https://twitter.com/LawyerRogelio/status/850336918965452803
PELOSI ALSO ASKED THE HOUSE TO DEBATE AUTHORIZATION IN 2014:
October 1, 2014 2:40 PM
Pelosi: Congress should return and debate military action
Nancy Pelosi wants Congress to debate and vote on authorizing President Barack Obama to wage war against terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
By David Lightman - McClatchy Washington Bureau
..............“There's a conversation among members informally about what form an authorization should take that would secure our national security interests, as well as could pass in both houses of Congress,” the House Democratic Leader told a Capitol news conference Wednesday.
......................
The White House has said it has the authority to conduct airstrikes against terrorists in Syria. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said earlier this week that he would be willing to have a vote on a formal authorization if Obama requested it.
Pelosi discussed Congress’ role in a broader context. “If you want to define an authorization...authority that you're giving the president, you don't wait for the president to write it. Congress writes it because we are asserting our willingness to vote for a plan of action,” she said.
Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/community/fort-mill-times/article11576876.html#storylink=cpy
Harvard students form 'Dumbledore's Army' to fight against Trump agenda
Harvard students form 'Dumbledore's Army' to fight against Trump agenda
http://thehill.com/homenews/news/327343-harvard-graduate-students-form-dumbledores-army-to-fight-against-trump-agenda
By Paulina Firozi - 04/04/17 09:27 PM EDT
................The "school" is a free four-week online course "that will sharpen the tools we need to fight back at the federal, state, and local levels," according to the group's website, as first reported by the Boston Globe.
"Our goal is to keep the embers of resistance alive through concrete learning, community engagement, and forward-looking action."
.......................
"Republicans now control the Senate, House, and more state legislatures than they have in almost 200 years. Those losses have emboldened the right to launch an all-out attack against our nation’s creed – that all are created equal."
The 11 creators have also compared themselves to "Dumbledore's Army," according to the Globe, referring to a group of students in the "Harry Potter" series that met secretly to stand up against the wizarding school's officials and learn spells to fight against dark magic.
.................
https://www.facebook.com/ResistSchool/
Profile Information
Member since: Wed Aug 15, 2012, 03:24 PMNumber of posts: 70,322
